The Holiday season sneaks up on us every year. Only it seems to be getting sneakier. We started writing this on vacation (YES – a real vacation!) and we actually finally have a moment to bang this out. We went on a cruise from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and back in 5 days with another couple, our friends Ron & Judith Roney. The picture is us showing off the lobster dinner, one of many we had in succession that night. This cruise was a trial run – we plan to take an Alaskan cruise in the future but decided we needed to determine whether we could stand to be on a boat. We had a great time, so expect a future newsletter to include a description of our Alaska trip. Until then, we are working off the pound-a-day weight gain.Dee is still dividing her time between veterinary relief work and jewelry. She had her jewelry in The Candle Shop in Lakeside until she found out it was closed and the proprietors were going through a nasty divorce. Fortunately, the wife was able to track down some of Dee’s stuff and return it to her. Dee is still looking for new venues for her wares, but a little more wary. Dee is still active in various jewelry-related organizations including the Bead Society, Metal Arts, Art Clay, Mineral & Gem and others.
Dee is now Past-President of the San Diego County Veterinary Medical Association (SDCVMA) – for the second time. You might have thought this was the end – some of us did – but no. She is now Treasurer and, some guess, working her way back to President. No big pet food deaths or lawsuits this year, so it was a pretty quiet tenure. But there is always next year.
Les still enjoys working at a big global law firm, just not the same one he was working at the beginning of the year. After 118 years, Heller Ehrman folded its tent, i.e. the partners voted to dissolve the partnership. Not entirely the doing of a down economy, but it certainly didn’t help. Fortunately, it was not too long before he was able to land at another law firm, Foley & Lardner, which is 50 years older than Heller Ehrman was (older must mean it will last longer right?). We feel very fortunate for him to be able to land another position so soon with an economy in such a down spiral. Several of his colleagues are still looking and we wish them all the best.
Les too remains involved with trade organizations: He is now chair-elect of the San Diego Chapter of the Licensing Executives Society (LES) and co-chair of the BIOCOM Intellectual Property Committee (BIOCOM, based in Southern California, is the largest regional life science association in the world). For the second time running he is a San Diego Daily Transcript (a local business paper) Young Attorney finalist. As long as they keep calling him “young” he will keep running. (“Young” is defined as an attorney less than seven years from law school graduation.)
Les continues to compete with his brews and he received a few awards at this year’s Great American Beer Festival and still judges competitions from time to time. This tends to get him greater recognition by his peers than his legal pursuits.
Les’ Mom was in the hospital with a recalcitrant pneumonia, followed by several weeks in a rehabilitation center. She conveniently decided to do this while Les was between jobs, so we were able to help out. She is on the mend and we hope that she will be back on her beach walks soon.
We have not yet gotten a replacement for Marney (the dog) who died more than a year ago, but Dee keeps threatening to do so. In the meantime, we still have Harvey (the African Grey parrot), Melon (the snowshoe cat) and Dot (the hooded rat – shown investigating a potted plant). Melon (formerly known as Haiku) has recently shown a surge of personality (after a couple of years): She routinely comes out to the living room to sit on a lap and often noses her way to the outdoors – but does not venture far. She has a very weird affinity to plastic bags – nuzzling and licking them – even though we remind her that a plastic bag is not a toy! She also licks the bathtub after we take showers (Mmmm…Soap scum!)
Bob, Les’s brother, was working in New York City and then Ann Arbor, Michigan (he’s a contract radiology tech) and made occasional visits. He recently came back to California – in Bakersfield. We hope that this will lead him to another job in San Diego shortly (meanwhile he will visit us at Christmas).
Our friend Barbara Sandberg visited us from Three Rivers (Dave decided to stay home to mind the pets). We enjoyed having her here, especially as an excuse to go again to our favorite restaurants. Dee also visited the Sandbergs and their burros (Burrito and Taco) – the picture below was dubbed, “Dee attends the Democratic Convention in Three Rivers” since the rest of the people in the area seemed to be Republicans.
As we said last year, we have been almost two decades in our “starter home” so we are thinking it is time to get the next house. Prices continue to go lower (less outrageous) and, as long as we can hold onto jobs, more affordable. We hope you weren’t holding your breath last year, though.
We wish everyone a happy and healthy 2009!
Love,
Dee and Les
and Harvey, Melon, and Dot.
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